At Sahara
Honouring The Female Bond
Article By Sahara .
Mar 13, 2020
Female relationships take many different forms but whether it is a sister, daughter, mother, aunt, cousin or friend, there are a set of experiences, innate to womanhood, which will always be shared between you.
In honour of Women’s History Month, we highlight the ways that women can deepen their relationships with, and celebrate, each other. It might be as simple as reaching out for a phone call or a cup of tea together, but if you would like to challenge yourselves with a new endeavour, look no further. Here is a list of engaging activities to share with the women in your life.
Sign Up For A Pottery Class
Just as we crave connection to the origin of our food, a similar satisfaction can come from creating a piece of our own pottery and, more importantly, understanding the process. Pottery is notoriously fickle and impossible to rush, making it the perfect blend of creative challenge and mindfulness exercise.
The perfect activity to try with a friend, there is an abundance of short courses or weekend intensives to get you started. If you don’t feel ready to dive into the glorious messiness of throwing, there are pottery painting cafes, which allow you to flex your creativity while eliminating your risk of going home empty-handed.
Experiment With A New Recipe
The joy in everyday cooking can be lost to hectic schedules and shopping logistics, but a great way to reconnect with it is to make something out of your comfort zone with the help from a friend. We suggest really pushing the boat out.
Some greats challenges to tackle:
Of course, your success rate may not be perfect and the beautifully photographed recipe may not be exactly what you end up with, but it is guaranteed to get you talking, laughing and bonding over the difficulty.
If your time constraints aren’t prohibitive, there are some incredible multi-lesson cooking classes to join, allowing you to attempt an entirely new genre or sharpen existing skills.
Calm your mind with yoga or meditation
Get moving with yoga or embrace stillness with meditation. Though not intuitively a partner activity, these activities are wonderful, not just for their benefits to mind and body, but to a shared understanding and for the conversations that come afterwards. If nothing else, you should leave feeling better than when you arrived, and who wouldn’t want to share that benefit with your fellow woman?
Science does support mindfulness as a positive force in delaying mental decline, improving sustained attention and sleep quality and enabling emotional regulation in anxiety and depression. Alongside scientific proof, you will find endless anecdotal proof that both yoga and any form of meditation are fantastic excuses to simply take a breath and clear your mind.
Get creative with a craft meet up
A gentle introduction to the world of creating, trying your hand at a new craft is a great way to shake up your routine. Most crafts are a reasonable cost to try and can be done anywhere – the ideal way to tackle something tactile and creative with decidedly low stakes.
It’s best to let go of all expectations and throw yourselves in for the fun of it. It’s lovely to end up with something you like, but the real benefit is in the doing.
Visit a museum or cultural exhibition
Museums and exhibitions are a completely egalitarian proposition: they are open to every class, race, gender, religion, ability and orientation. Despite accessibility, these institutions are often revered by those from farther afield and ignored by people from the same city. The UK is steeped in history and has some of the best publicly available culture in the world. Grab a friend or relative and discover the adventure and knowledge right on your doorstep!
“Women understand. We may share experiences, make jokes, paint pictures, and describe humiliations that mean nothing to men, but women understand. The odd thing about these deep and personal connections of women is that they often ignore barriers of age, economics, worldly experience, race, culture — all the barriers that, in male or mixed society, had seemed so difficult to cross.”